Last weekend’s third annual “Beyond Eden Multi-Gallery Art Event” held at the historic Barnsdall Art Park / Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in East Hollywood was vibrant and well-attended with an estimated 5000 people passing through the gallery between Saturday night and Sunday day – a fantastic turnout especially in the face of numerous competing art events and fairs during “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980,”a multi-institutional initiative conceived by the Getty Foundation and Getty Research Institute. The success of Beyond Eden is further proof that the “New Contemporary Art Scene” (an umbrella term which encompasses Pop Surrealism, Street Art, Lowbrow, Outsider, Illustrative, Narrative and beyond ) is a force to be reckoned in the art world now, and for a long time to come.

The event, with its foundation planted firmly in California, the birthplace of the New Contemporary Art Scene, showcased the works of a half dozen Southern California galleries including C.A.V.E. Gallery, Copro Gallery, Gallery Nucleus, La Luz De Jesus Gallery (in celebration of their 25th Anniversary this year), Toy Art Gallery, and Thinkspace. Live painting demonstrations took place at the entrance and bar area of the gallery. This year’s featured events included exhibitions from Cannibal Flower (emerging LA based artists) and San Francisco’s Spoke Art (the LA stop of the traveling ‘Quentin vs. Coens’ exhibit) and a special showcase of Los Angeles street artists presented by Thinkspace and curated by local artist Euth. A screening of the ‘best of’ Sketch Theater, the online site designed to inspire creativity through time-lapsed, start-to-finish sketches from numerous artists ran continually in the gallery’s screening room. The event was topped off with a lively award ceremony, celebrating artist Anthony Ausgang on the 20th anniversary of his first solo show and his continued presence in the art world. Previous Beyond Eden award ceremonies recognized the contributions and influences of La Luz de Jesus’ Billy Shire (2009) and artist Robert Williams (2010) with lifetime achievement awards.

The event was coordinated by Thinkspace and Sour Harvest‘s Andrew Hosner with Lee of Lee JosephPublicity for the Visual Arts and Dionysus Records. Plans are in store for the Fourth Annual Beyond Eden, in 2012, stay tuned!